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El Reg is irreverent and intentionally apes British tabloids, sure - but their journalism is fine. MediaBiasFactCheck rates them as "High" on their factuality

El Reg is irreverent and intentionally apes British tabloids, sure - but their journalism is fine. MediaBiasFactCheck rates them as "High" on their factuality scale: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-register-uk/ https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-register-uk/ (though MediaBasFactCheck's statement that "we rate The Register Least Biased based on minimal editorializing" seems to be based on their lack of a political bias, but El Reg is certainly biased towards iconoclasm, but that's the way I like 'em)

ghaff 3y ago
And this has sort of been a historical thing with, actually, some of the better UK tech trade press. It's often deliberately provocative and snarky, but that doesn't make it wrong, and indeed may be insightful in the way that more staid publications aren't. Add to that the fact that headlines often tease and provoke on their own (as they did before there were clicks much of the time).
tentacleuno 3y ago
> but El Reg is certainly biased towards iconoclasm That seems like a strange perspective. Isn't the whole point of a news source not to be editorially biased? They give you the facts, and you use those facts to draw your own conclusion(s).
- bananapub 3y ago
  > That seems like a strange perspective. Isn't the whole point of a news source not to be editorially biased? They give you the facts, and you use those facts to draw your own conclusion(s). er...what? what news source do you feel does this?
  - defrost 3y ago
    Various subscription industry intelligence news feeds that hold to unbiased standards. Eg: Minerals and Resources sector feeds that endeavour to convey all the relevant factoids in the industry domain - "On <this date> <that company> stated <something>". That's a verifiable fact stated baldly - it's readily provable whether or not a listed company released a statement .. and there is nothing there about whether what the company claimed in their statement was "true". Later that same feed might release a third party independant technical report that may or may not support the claim made. Two weeks later the feed might report that an employee at the third party company was arrested for fraud.
    - DaiPlusPlus 3y ago
      > factoids That word does not mean what you think it means. The "-oid" suffix denotes a thing that seems like X, but is not X (e.g. "asteroid" -> "seems like a star, but is not a star (it's a space-rock) - or "cuboid": "seems like a cube, but is not a cube".
      - defrost 3y ago
        Definition: A factoid is a statement based on an assumption—something that has never been confirmed. News feeds of "factoids" are a thing - and they are verifiably true if framed as such. See my comment above where I give an example of the recommended framing of domain snippets in unbiased intelligence feeds. No assumptions are made about the veracity of statements by publicly listed statements and such feeds never state that "Today Rio Tinto aquired property X" instead they seperately report * Today Rio Tinto stated they acquired property X (link to statement) and * Today the mineral resources dept. of the Canadian NWT reported a change of ownership in property X to Subsidiary Holdings ABC12 Ltd. Thank you for your unthinking condescension, factoid is exactly the word I meant.
- swatcoder 3y ago
  I think you're confusing a news source with city council minutes or a police blotter. Journalists are trade professionals whose job is connect dots and follow leads to try to surface deeper issues and ideas in their reporting. They should adhere to facts, but they should also be using their immersion and expertise to contextualizing those facts and make them understood to an audience who isn't so immersed or expert. If they can do that earnestly and with the transparency that lets you see where they're working from, and with a style that helps you read/engage, they're doing good work.

ghaff 3y ago

And this has sort of been a historical thing with, actually, some of the better UK tech trade press. It's often deliberately provocative and snarky, but that doesn't make it wrong, and indeed may be insightful in the way that more staid publications aren't. Add to that the fact that headlines often tease and provoke on their own (as they did before there were clicks much of the time).

tentacleuno 3y ago

> but El Reg is certainly biased towards iconoclasm That seems like a strange perspective. Isn't the whole point of a news source not to be editorially biased? They give you the facts, and you use those facts to draw your own conclusion(s).

bananapub 3y ago
> That seems like a strange perspective. Isn't the whole point of a news source not to be editorially biased? They give you the facts, and you use those facts to draw your own conclusion(s). er...what? what news source do you feel does this?
- defrost 3y ago
  Various subscription industry intelligence news feeds that hold to unbiased standards. Eg: Minerals and Resources sector feeds that endeavour to convey all the relevant factoids in the industry domain - "On <this date> <that company> stated <something>". That's a verifiable fact stated baldly - it's readily provable whether or not a listed company released a statement .. and there is nothing there about whether what the company claimed in their statement was "true". Later that same feed might release a third party independant technical report that may or may not support the claim made. Two weeks later the feed might report that an employee at the third party company was arrested for fraud.
  - DaiPlusPlus 3y ago
    > factoids That word does not mean what you think it means. The "-oid" suffix denotes a thing that seems like X, but is not X (e.g. "asteroid" -> "seems like a star, but is not a star (it's a space-rock) - or "cuboid": "seems like a cube, but is not a cube".
    - defrost 3y ago
      Definition: A factoid is a statement based on an assumption—something that has never been confirmed. News feeds of "factoids" are a thing - and they are verifiably true if framed as such. See my comment above where I give an example of the recommended framing of domain snippets in unbiased intelligence feeds. No assumptions are made about the veracity of statements by publicly listed statements and such feeds never state that "Today Rio Tinto aquired property X" instead they seperately report * Today Rio Tinto stated they acquired property X (link to statement) and * Today the mineral resources dept. of the Canadian NWT reported a change of ownership in property X to Subsidiary Holdings ABC12 Ltd. Thank you for your unthinking condescension, factoid is exactly the word I meant.
swatcoder 3y ago
I think you're confusing a news source with city council minutes or a police blotter. Journalists are trade professionals whose job is connect dots and follow leads to try to surface deeper issues and ideas in their reporting. They should adhere to facts, but they should also be using their immersion and expertise to contextualizing those facts and make them understood to an audience who isn't so immersed or expert. If they can do that earnestly and with the transparency that lets you see where they're working from, and with a style that helps you read/engage, they're doing good work.